


A Day at the Fair

by Hotspur



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Autumn, County Fairs, F/M, Fairs, Festivals, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Indiana, and bunnies, au where nothing scary happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-26
Updated: 2013-09-26
Packaged: 2017-12-27 16:45:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/981253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hotspur/pseuds/Hotspur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mulder and Scully are stuck at the top of the ferris wheel. Scully is threatening to kill Mulder. Mulder wants to win Scully something, but he can't. Scully is stopping herself from ordering the fried Oreos. And there might be an alien in the portajohn. A normal day at the fair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Day at the Fair

**Author's Note:**

> I spent all last night/early morning writing this because I didn't want to never get around to it, like I tend to with a lot of stories. The time has been moved forward to this decade (did the X-Files really start 20 years ago?), like in the SW2F universe. This is just a happy, fluffy story where nothing scary happens and they just have fun at the fair. The fair is one in particular, being the one I have gone to every year near where I live. I feel like it's an old creative writing assignment, because I put so much detail into it. Anyway, enjoy.

"I am going to kill you, Mulder!" Scully screamed, grabbing her partner's shoulders. "You hear me? The minute we're out-"

"Stop it, Scully," Mulder choked. "You're shaking it." He looked down uneasily. The ground seemed so far away, and the people milling around didn't ease his eyes any either.

"This is what I get for a vacation?" Scully asked. "Stuck with you on top of some deadly contraption. See if I ever come with you again." She folded her arms in a huff and looked away.

Dana Scully and Fox Mulder were on the ferris wheel, stuck at the very top. It had stopped mid ride, leaving everyone suspended and left to seriously think about their life choices. Scully, for one, was regretting ever agreeing to leave the ground. This vacation was supposed to have been fun. She and Mulder had come to Indiana to investigate reports of Oscar, the giant turtle said to live in a lake in Churubusco. They'd not found any giant turtle, but they had found a flyer for the DeKalb County Free Fall Fair, and had been at the same time been given the weekend off by Skinner, who probably didn't want to hear Mulder's giant turtle stories.

So Mulder and Scully had gone to Auburn, a typical Midwest town, for a short vacation at the fair. Tomorrow they were going back to potential shutdown and typical Washington chaos. Tonight Mulder wanted to see how much cotton candy he could eat. The fair was spread out through the middle of the town, centered on the courthouse square and heading off in several streets of junk food, a long tent, and to the actual fairgrounds, where the animals were being shown. Mulder could see all this from his vantage point at the top of the town.

"Oh, great, a guy's climbing up," Scully said, leaning over Mulder. A carnie clambered up the side of the ferris wheel and started adjusting something. "If we die, this is your fault."

\-----------------

"See?" Mulder said. "We got off just fine! Actually, it was fun. Just not the getting stuck part. I don't want to do that again." He and Scully were walking down one of the clumps of food vendors. They had every kind of junk food imaginable- hot dogs, elephant ears, deep-fried Oreos, cheese curds, even alligator. One booth, selling doughnuts, had a line stretching down the whole block.

The two agents decided on sharing an elephant ear; after all, no one comes to the county fair to eat healthy. They munched on their pastry and slurped their lemonade, and fought their way through the crowd to the animal barns. They saw the goats and lambs, and then moved on to the bunnies.

"Aw, they are so cute!" Scully gushed, bending down to look at a lop-ear.

"I thought you were a dog person," Mulder replied, distracted by a loppie that looked just like Scully. The bunny was staring right at him.

"I like all animals," Scully replied, standing up and smoothing her skirt. "Which one do you like best? I like the loppies."

"They're all really cute " Mulder said. After all the horrifying aliens, possessions, cannibalism, murders, and angry bosses he'd seen, the bunnies were a relief. "I like this one, the lion head." He pointed to a black and white bunny with a punky hairdo. "I dunno .." he said, attempting to stick a finger between the cage mesh to feel the fur. "Think we should get a bunny for the office?"

"I was in 4-H, but I didn't raise rabbits," Scully replied.

They walked on to admire the draft horses and try to get the regular-size horses to come to the stall door. None of the horses seemed to like Mulder. The pony in the petting zoo seemed fine with him, but he was a docile old Shetland, a veteran of the fair and children's affection. Mulder was nothing new. The goat in the petting zoo especially liked Scully, and tried to ear her jacket.

\-------------------

"I'm going to find a restroom," Mulder said. They were going to the red and white striped industrial tent, which housed booths from local businesses, political parties, churches, and sellers of pocket knives and t-shirts.

"Okay," Scully said, leaning on the large concrete block holding the center edge of the tent in place. "I'll wait here." Mulder walked off and she opened the fair program she'd picked up, looking to see if tonight's free concert would be any good.

Mulder was back soon.

"I think there's an alien here," he said, taking her aside as a mother with a baby carriage squeezed past.

"An alien." Scully said. "At the fair."

"The doughnuts are quite good, I've heard."

"That's ridiculous."

"Serious," Mulder said as they merged with the walking traffic into the crowded tent. "I saw one by the porta-potties. Skinny, big eyes, gray skin. I think there's a gray here."

"Okay, you've had too much sugar," Scully said.

They walked through the displays, admiring the leather goods and picking up flyers for storm windows they didn't need. They counted which booths had bumper stickers, which had candy, and which just had coupons for a free consultation. They voted on the cutest baby at the Crisis Pregnancy Center's booth, which was manned by a middle-aged mother who was crocheting and a teen reading comic book.

Mulder got caught looking at a water cooler, and was soon receiving Indiana's best sales pitch. Scully wandered away and found herself at an evangelist booth.

"Here for a story, ma'am?" A kindly old lady asked.

"Sure," Scully replied, sitting down on one of the tiny elementary school chairs. There were three others in the audience: a little boy, his mother, and a middle school girl, who had probably come over for the same reason as Scully. They were each given a bag of popcorn, and the lady sat down in the folding chair in front of them with a little book. Each page was simply a color. Black, she explained, was sin. The second page was red.

"Anyone know what that is?" She asked.

"Blood," replied the girl.

"Right. Who's blood is it, though?" The woman asked.

"Jesus'," the girl replied. Obviously she had heard the story before.

"Right. Jesus Christ shed His blood for us, when He died on the cross," the old lady said. She flipped to the next page, which was white. "Now, this page is white because Jesus' blood made us pure. We're forgiven, from all the bad things we've ever done." She flipped to the second to last page. "It's gold," she said. "The..gold reminds us of Heaven, where Jesus lives. Some people start with gold, but I learned to talk about it after we learn about His blood. Do you know why?"

Scully, feeling like she was back in Sunday School, raised her hand.

"Yes? I forgot to ask you your name!" The lady said.

"Dana," Scully replied. "The gold comes after the sin, blood, and purity because first we have to be washed of our sin before we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We have to gain salvation first."

"Right!" The older woman said, turning to the children. "I hope you listened to Miss Dana." The story concluded with green, symbolizing a Christian's need to grow. After the story, Scully was just getting up from the midget chair when Mulder walked over, free of the salesman.

"Did you learn anything?" He asked.

"I should probably teach Sunday School," Scully replied, eating some popcorn. "How about you?" She offered him the bag and he took a handful. Recent events had made her more mindful of God, but Mulder, the eternal believer, was for once not convinced that there were other forces at play.

"I'm not sure, but I think I just got a new water cooler," Mulder replied. "Want to go play some games?"

"Sure," Scully agreed. They walked through the rest of the tent, then back out into the sunset. The sky was turning a brilliant shade of pink, fading slowly to purple and preparing to join the void. Both agents felt happy. No cases, no conspiracies, aliens, or death on the line. Just a break and some fun.

They each tried the ring toss, which neither were good at, and watched a mouse game. Mulder tried to win a dart throw, but he missed all three times. He wouldn't admit it, but he was embarrassed he couldn't win, and he certainly wouldn't admit he wanted to win something for Scully. A few games later, Mulder bowed out by saying he'd run over to the Kiwanis booth and get a couple of doughnuts. They weren't the famous ones, but still, doughnuts. Scully agreed and said she'd meet him over there in a couple minutes.

\-------------

"Hey Scully," Mulder said as she sat down on the bench at the Kiwanis booth next to him. "They only have cake doughnuts, I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all," she said, leaning something on the bench. Mulder stared at the shape next to her.

"Is that-" he began.

"I won it," Scully replied. "You can name him, if you want. For some reason I want to call him Roger."

"Roger's fine," Mulder replied. He was staring at a big, green, inflatable alien.

"He's for you, by the way," Scully said. "I thought you would like to put him in your office."

"Where did you win him?" Mulder asked. He felt more than a little bad- he'd wanted to win a prize for her.

"One of the shooting galleries," Scully replied as a worker served them their doughnuts and hot cider. "I never told you what I did in 4-H. I was into shooting sports."

Mulder wasn't surprised. He still felt a little jealous, but he realized how thoughtful the present was. Plus he liked the alien.

She took a bite of doughnut and then laughed. "I just didn't tell the guy running the game that I'm an FBI agent."

Mulder laughed too. "Did you ever go to fairs as a kid?" He asked.

"I did, every fall there was one the county hosted, like this. Food, 4-H, this sort of thing," Scully said. "Did you?"

"Once, with Samantha," Mulder said. "I don't remember going any other year. We might have been visiting family. Anyway, we went on the ferris wheel, and we got stuck at the top, just like tonight."

"Did she freak?" Scully asked.

"No. She was calm. I was the one predicting the apocalypse," Mulder said with a laugh. They cleaned up their mess and picked up their alien, and moved on down the street, sharing memories of past fairs.

\--------------------

Scully needed to go to the bathroom, but she was a lot smarter than Mulder had been, and instead of hitting the portajohns she went up the the courthouse, which had been opened for restrooms. The line to the lady's room was long, but worth the clean facilities, real water, and the fact that it wasn't a rented crapper.

After what seemed a good half hour, Scully came back out and sat down on a bench, watching the fair move past and stand still at the same time. Mulder had said he would go to the bathroom too, and she had been forced to keep Roger with her in the bathroom. She and the alien now sat relaxing and watching people go by, and smelling the delicious cholesterol bombs being fried up, to be washed down with lemon shakeups.

A half-hour passed, and Mulder didn't come back. Scully called his cell, but got no answer. She sighed and decided to wait some more, and pulled her Kindle out of her purse to read.

"Hey Scully. Thanks for waiting." Mulder was right in front of her.

She put her Kindle away. "Where were you?"

"Around," was his unhelpful reply.

"Don't run off like that," Scully admonished. She hated losing track of him.

"Hey, let's go see the band that's playing," Mulder said. Scully got up from her bench and picked up Roger and followed Mulder. She noticed a strange bulge at his side.

The main stage was a block away, but they could hear everything. The band was decent, and the music was a selection of covers of classic rock. As they got closer, Mulder had an epiphany.

"That's the alien I saw, Scully!" He said, pointing to the stage.

"Where?" Scully asked, trying to follow his hand, which was indicating a slightly androgynous lead singer belting out "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac. "Oh," she said. "You saw the singer."

"Yeah..." Mulder began. "I guess I did."

\---------------------

"Now _this_ would be the perfect time to ride the ferris wheel," Mulder said as they walked back to their car. Scully had resisted the urge to try the deep-fried Twinkies, but they had stood in line for the world's best doughnuts. It was worth it.

"If you think you're getting me on that thing again," Scully said, "Mulder, you're crazy."

"No, I mean, now can see all the lights of the rides and stalls. It's really pretty from the sky, I bet." He looked up into the void. A few stars winked in the distance. "It's so beautiful up there... I wonder that we look like much of anything down here." He unlocked the door, and got in, the bulge making it awkward. Roger was taking a much-needed nap in the back seat, and Scully was already buckled in her seat.

"Here you go, Scully," he said, pulling a stuffed animal out from under his jacket. "Forty bucks playing darts, but worth it." He handed it to her.

"Thank you..." She said, her heart stopping as she felt the fur. "I love it, Mulder. Thank you." She leaned over and kissed his cheek.

"I thought you might like it. Anyway, Roger needs a friend," Mulder replied, smiling and dazed.

They drove back to their hotel to rest up for tomorrow's journey back to Washington. An exhausted Agent Scully fell asleep with her cheek on the window, cuddling the stuffed fox.


End file.
